I cannot thank you enough for your writing, I am so grateful for your book Prometheus Rising, you gave what was needed so well, and your wonderful humor tickels! Love You!Blessings Now, Yes? Good! Tamara & Ishtar Rising

Hello NEMO (aka RAW, Mal2)I like how you make me think for myself! In your books you left some clues that are useful to unlock other "knowledge" that is not directly wirtten in your books! Hope you're writing another one!418210

More than anything, bob, I admire you for your philosophy, imagination and intelligence. You're a weirdo, sure. But you're more loved than you'll know. When I first saw a video of you, I realized I'd found someone worthy of emulation. And no matter how much inner strength I have, when I'm down, nothing calms me like a pill of seeing someone who knows it's okay to be weird, and okay to dream aloud. And sometimes brandy. :)

I suspect you are communicating with more equals than maybe you realize, Mr Wilson. And if the future of consciousness is created, not discovered, you may surely consider yourself one of the founding fathers.

this blog is turning into a religious ceremony! i've never seen anything like it.

http://www.hermes-press.com/index.html

(the last link i left got cut off on the right, sorry about having to split it up to fit the formatting)

not every discordian knows they are a discordian! the podge is rising!

http://www.aztlan.net/rumblings_center_galaxy.htm

quote:Dr. Hyman and his his fellow researchers detected an intermittent signal that seemed intelligently directed. The signal consisted of five highly energetic radio emissions of equal brightness that lasted 10 minutes each and appeared every 77 minutes over a 7-hour period from September 30 to October 1. The discovery has left Professor Scott Hyman and the entire astronomy community "scratching their heads".

What are these strange rumblings at the center of our Galaxy? Modern day astrophysicists and astronomers, with their sophisticated scientific instruments, are not the only humans that have contemplated this very same question. In fact, the ancient Mayas, the superb astronomers and mathematicians that they were, also mused on what may exist at the center of our Galaxy. The Mayas knew exactly where this center was located in the sky and had a glyph representing it named Hunab Ku by Dr. Jose Arguelles of Princeton University, but known to the Mayas as "The Galactic Butterfly". Much more, their entire cosmology and extremely accurate calendars were based on the existence and location of Hunab Ku and they believed that the future of mankind ultimately depends on what occurs there.

if you go to the page you will see that the hunab ku looks like a vagina. discovered by doctor hyman. very funny, eris.

Your writing has been well-crafted enough to make me even withstand over one year of Objectivist (the Ayn Rand type) influence. If I had to name one person who has influenced my thinking the most (and there have been lots since I'm a reading junkie), it would be you, Bob.Regarding your pleasant meal:Learn lucid dreaming. There are tons of cool guides on that available for free online. And since you're in bed a lot anyway, you can easily do all the excercises. That way, you can have a large feast every night. ;)(this is perfect, if you stick to a diet, by the way :D - you feast in your dreams, which means no calories. Plus: the food is for free and you don't have to cook.)I'm glad to see that you have a blog now. Keep up the good work! It makes a difference.All the best,Felix.

Hello Bob. You should read the www.quatonics.com website. It uses quantum mechanics to explain the same epiphanies you have expounded on many years ago. Based on the findings of Quantum Mechanics and Robert Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality, the site says the reality is massively plural, is in flux, and their main credo being, "Truth is an agent of its own change". What the site says is very similar to what you have been saying before, they even have an english remediation link where they attack "the" and other objective tools of english. Please do consult www.quantonics.com, it's very important that you do.

Sorry for the typos Bob, its www.quantonics.com. Robert Pirsig and Quantonics attacks two main paradigms, that of subject-object metaphysics (SOM) which is platonic-aristotelian in nature and Cultural Relativism (CR). To SOMites, truth is absolute, reality is fixed, static, and evolution in the general sense is impossible. To Cultural Relativists, the only absolute is chaos, whose proponents most often than not use the word "whatever". Robert Pirsig presents a new mode of thinking called the Metaphysics of Quality, which is presented in his books Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance and Lila. In it, he presents Quality, which is synonymous with Tao, God or any other word to describe that greater aspect of reality, and bravely creates a metaphysics based on Quality. The founder of www.quantonics.com saw how Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality jives with Quantum Mechanics, and thus used MOQ as a philosophical foundation for further explorations into Quantum Reality. To proponents of MOQ, there are many truths, reality is in constant flux (ala Heraclitus), reality is sophist, unpredictable and other Quantum Epiphanies. Please do read the site, it wont be a waste of your time, you'll like it very much.

I innocently picked up Illuminatus! just in time, about a month before my 23rd birthday. But it was Cosmic Trigger that showed me I was firmly on the path, with no looking back.

While I no longer subscribe to everything those books showed me--who could, fifteen very eventful years later--I do still question reality on a daily, even hourly, basis. If that wasn't the point, then I must have missed something huge. But it's enough for me.

Having read nearly all of your publications, you have had a profound influence on my life.

I've met you a few times at your seminars/book signings in Dallas and Austin and each time you have (unknowingly) reduced me to a speechless idiot. Nobody else on the planet has managed that yet, so I consider that quite a feat!

News of your financial crisis motivated me to change the main page of fnord.org and cross-post the data to several blogs, livejournal communities and news forums. I hope that the contributions are still coming in!

May you find mental peace and pleasure even if your body is unwilling to co-operate!

I've had many hours of insightful enjoyment with your books. I quoted you on my Swedish-language blog only a few days ago, and it was a nice synchronicity, for me, that you had started a blog of your own. Now, I can thank you in person for influencing my life with your wonderful writing.

I was always a science nut as a kid. Then I got into Eastern "modes of thought". Then I tired of that. Then I roamed intellectually aimless. Then I tripped over Cosmic Trigger. Then everything started over with science. Then I had my own CONTACT experience. Then I put it into words at www.starlarvae.org.

Bob, many years ago (approx. 37 or 38 years ago), I had the privilege of attending a dinner with you and Arlen at my brother's place on Elizabeth St. in San Francisco (666 Elizabeth, to be exact - you were very impressed by that address). We were treated to hours of wine and discourse which remain vivid in my mind still to this day. Equally vivid is the love which you and Arlen had for your teenage son and daughter who were also there. I read all of your books, and have thought many times of that night - particularly of the deep love which you and Arlen shared with each other, and your children. That love lives on as surely as your writings live on.

People think more highly of your writings,than you do?! Bob, you've influenced two to three generations of people. Your influence is spread about the Universe like strawberry jam! Don't forget this while eating your pleasant meal. WE LOVE YOU, BOB!

Namaste! or Aum Shiva as John says.I'm a 21 y.o. and just started to read Eye In The Pyramid.Its what that i was a long searching for - a good fiction book. its a art-fi. a good tennis for a brain.and full of fun and smiles. and it really turns on! thanx for a one more artifact of this century!have all nice ! :)

I don't consider it hyperbole (and this is one subject of which I can speak with some confidence) to say that if I hadn't read Prometheus Rising when I did, I might not be here now to tell you how much your writing means and has meant to me. More than anything else, perhaps, you taught me optimism without bullshit.

Even though I've largely giving up trying to tell people that magic can work if they do, every morning I recite "I bless Ra" and something always happens to indicate that it still works, or that I still work, or both.

A pleasant meal certainly seems like a fair reward and I hope you get it.

Too late in life one begins to realize the impact that they have had. With your work, you have sent a message so clear and defined, that it shall echo down this crazy telescope of history and information without diminishing. Your influence has only just begun.

I'm a comic and I use your ideas all the time, Bob. Of course, I'm often too stoopid to remember I've got a stack of your books and a DVD- which is exactly when I need to to refer to them! But anyway, your thoughts help me escape the tragedy of being a dumb-ass.

Never underestimate the number of minds you have freed. Indeed, you are the last (and arguably always the sanest) link to the consciousness revolution. Me and the rest of the under 30 set love you so much we're doing a whole event dedicated to the ideals and practices that you have espoused (see our website and our myspace for more info).

More than anything you help us to confront our own demons and the shit state of the world we all live in without giving in to nihilism or burying our heads in the sand out of fear. Your life and work are an inspiration to us all.

One day I will find myself in one of the world's international institutions quoting you, not Ghandi. (He was kind of an asshole, glad I didn't marry him).

Will Operation Mindfuck open the doors for a young woman like myself (once it's understood I'm infallible even without a penis-who knew!) in order to be able do that? Let's hope.

I am a political science student (cringe) trying to plan my own multifaceted Operation Get A Clue. If you think about it, the people I most need to convince are a small minority of powerful little white men, so there's reason to hope, right?(See I just finished writing that statement and I'm not even sure I agree with it anymore....Can you see why your writing would have such a relatable quality to it for me?)

I am particularly interested in peace studies (a new little baby the arts world has decided is legitimate enough now to be taught), and I wonder if you even know how much your writing contributes to this (or even if those teaching peace studies recognize this). It does. And if and when I get anywhere, you know- after I've graduated, then done a master's degree, then figured out how not to starve- I promise you, you will be a mainstay in my curriculum if I do wind up teaching peace. Teaching Peace. (Those two words seem odd side by side-shouldn't peace be a given?...bah...)

anyway, my question was if you even know how much you contribute to the study of peace, and also, to let you know that this is how I HOPE to keep you living forever.would you like that?

You see, I think my generation is totally fucked in that it's starving for heroes. If they aren't already dead, we'll probably see them die. Many of us have to go back decades to find wisdom from the weird eccentrics of the day. And it's also pretty fucked that even when they are well known, their mainstream ideas are all that are known OF them. I mean, yeah I read Brave New World in high school (how progressive!) but if I had known back then what I know now about Huxley, I would have asked my Lit teacher about his ideas on the need to let off steam in our society (via orgies or mushrooms or whatnot). Maybe we should discuss these sorts of things at the dinner table, I don't know! It's kind of a coincidence that I write this considering I just saw something about continuing research on giving people with OCD mushrooms to treat it. Maybe! Talvez!

In the meantime, please stay alive and healthy. you seriously are one of the only living heroes my generation has, whether they know it yet (many do, as you can see by the responses on your blog) or not. It's very strange to try and explain to you how important you are--without EVER being preachy or pedantic you have offered us a gasp of fresh air. I'm someone who would never want to be famous and never want to have her ass kissed unless it was my hubby, and you probably don't want to be super famous and have his ass kissed all day either- but in reality I hope that people will fully recognize the merit of your fame and increasingly continue to kiss your ass forevermore, forevermore.

Mr. Wilson, in my oddly pastoral dream you appeared to be sitting underneath a tree, countenance calm and with a hint of mischief. In the dream I was teetering at the edge of reason, feeling disorientated and distressed. In this state I approached your figure and with a burning urgency inquired, "What the hell is really going on?!" After a long pause, with benevolent bemused reverence you replied, "Puzzling, isn't it?" at which point fissures appeared in the surrounding space in the form of a great puzzle which proceeded to break apart revealing wider and wider open spaces between the pieces. Every puzzle piece was overwhelmingly ripe with myriad meanings and interconnections. They were at once elements, asanas, trigrams, codons, colors, tones, numbers and lights. My sense of awe expanded in synchronicity with the opening void and then you were gone, I was gone, and all that remained was a living, breathing, heartful gratitude. And silence.

I'm happy that I have a way to say this to you. I was fifteen when I first read a book by you. I'm thirty-one now and you have perhaps been the single most influential person in my life aside from my family and close friends. Many of my interests and activities (in particular, Crowley and Leary) were driven by the way your writing opened my mind and awareness to a multitude of topics. I truly feel that my life is richer because of you. Thank you so much!

Recommend: All Hands: Read "Dilbert Future" by Scott Adams, special emphasis last chapter. Adams testifies to his success with written affirmations of form: "I, (name) will (specific goal)." Written fifteen (15) times/day. Says that by the time he wrote "I, Scott Adams, will have the most popular comic strip in America" it didn't even seem far-fetched (having already done such effective affirmations as "I, Scott Adams, will get a 94 on test" and got a 94.)

Recommend affirmation: "I, (name) will artfully help save the world." Write this fifteen (15) times each day and remain Alert to Intuitive Signals that Opportunites Exist to achieve Goal. Disseminate this meme widely. Blessed be. PraBob.

P.S. there's a hell of a nice universe next door, but this one has chocolate, wine, and robert anton wilson. beat that if you can!

If it weren't for you, I don't know where i'd be, but this me would probably hate that me. Stumbling across the Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy when i wanted to create a world called The Universe Next Door was the best thing that ever happened to me. Well, unless you count actually reading Illuminatus!

You're like the Dalai Lama of Discordianism; what you say isn't really law, but you're still fucking awesome, and we hope you get reincarnated. Possibly as a llama.

"'tis an ill-wind that blows no minds..." I think you have proven to be one of the best and biggest windbags of the previous century.

I've had a couple of conversations lately, in which you were refered to as a mischevious, yet kindly Irish uncle. Which of course led to the discussion of these quotes from everybody's favorite Germanic coke-fiend:

"This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever" - (Sigmund Freud - about the Irish)."Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity.”

Thanks for helping more people than you'll ever know inocculate themselves against neurosis.

blessings to you on this day when the cosmic dragon consumes and then shits out the sun.

Dearest Sir...I first read your books in college and have been reading them ever since. They definitely shaped the way I think and *am* in the world. And then I had the pleasure of sharing your work with my stepson. We're both die-hard RAW fans. He told me about your new blog, which I'm thrilled to see and will bookmark and follow. Take care... you are loved!

Though it's uncharactiristic for me, I have to join the chorus here. Your writing was an inspiration to me in my 'formative years' (now isn't that a scary thought?) and helped reaffirm many of my own thoughts which may have been otherwise squelched. Well, maybe that last part's not true, I'm stubborn as hell, but all the same-- I'm incredibly grateful this world has had you in it, and that I've been able to encounter you, if only through your writing. Keep on smiling.

You've been in my awareness since the early 90s. We've had a number of mutual friends, and I had the pleasure of meeting you at Tim Leary's memorial service in Los Angeles - quite an unforgettable encounter with you and the great John Lilly.

Heck, you even wrote me a letter once encouraging me to become a Muslim and surrender to Allah! Funny guy!

Thanks for all the good times My life has been enriched by your presence in it.

Amen to all the other comments! If you get down to reading this far, I just want to let you know that if it wasn't for an article of yours on Wilhelm Reich that I read in 1987, I might not be here today, and certainly wouldn't have known that it was a badge of honor when normals call you "weird."

There is no doubt that you are loved and much respected. Thank you for Love, thank you for Light, thank you for Life, thank you for LIBERTY, thank you for Everything!This one comes from the everchanging region of Balkan!

I had to pitch in when I saw "69 comments" already posted (check re Crowley in Cosmic Trigger.) Yep, we sure do appreciated the illuminating emanations from NO SLOW ROTTEN BRAIN in a world full of slow, rotten, or both. Carry on, TO META THERION.

an appreciaton for Joyce, Pynchon, Crowley, and Shakespearea backlog of psychedelia storiesa headful of conspiraciesa generally positive outlooka genuinely critical belief structurea life in San Francisco (long story, but it does trace back to you)so much inspiration to sit back and enjoy nonsense for what it isso much inspiration in general.

I've gone through an embarrassing number of your books- they tend to go on permanent loan, and I end up buying them again and again.

Of all the people I've never met (and will probably not get the chance to meet), you have had the most direct impact on making me who I am. And I like being me very much. Thank you for having lived an important, beautiful, and positive life. I love you like the crazy uncle I never had.

You've done much more for the world then you think, and I hope you'll stick around long enough to be able to reap the benefits of a becoming generation that will bless you mightily for your honesty, love, and unwavering search for Truth. Your own search has made my road of the same much easier (you providing a well drawn, highly articulated map of the area under-construction)and definetely more fruitful. Yet it doesn't seem like "thanks" covers the immense effect you've had or the potential effect you'll have on me and countless other Seekers. I hope others will do as I will, by placing those who Seek (don't we all?) into the caring, work-worn hands of Bob, helping make at least a rudimentary acquiescense of "human" knowledge within the grasp of the willing. Blessings upon Blessings upon Blessings, sending Energy and Love your way. Cody W - a Sirius RAW dog

A few pope cards...the sound of your voice..BOOM...saintly honors bestowed from the bastard community your work has fostered. Good Lawd man..didja ever see that one comin'?Our minds were changed and our hearts laid open.I'm touched to see these comments as I'm forced to accept that I alone didn't worship at the Bobalter.Dammit Boss, you're a thousand miles away and you just yanked yet another preconceived personal concept right out from under me...while barely lifting a finger.Nuthin' up his sleeve..Presto!Via Lucis Sic Atur Ad Astra

Even among those who don't count themselves Erisians or Discordians, your influence is significant. You've managed, in the short span of a single lifetime, to extrude a million meme-tentacles that have virtually riddled post-modern culture with wonderful weirdness and thought-provoking confusementation.

Seriously, the effect of your work on the very best and most interesting segments of our culture has been and continues to be profound, even among people who have never heard of you.

I just wanted to take a moment to offer a long delayed and greatly overdue thanks. Thank you for turning me on to Leary and the 8-circuit model, to Fuller and his omnidirectional halo, to Joyce and Finnegan's Wake, to Crowley and his subtle aeon, to Lilly and his dolphins, to Thornley and his ornery Goddess, to NLP, Korzybski, and E-Prime, and to the radically pragmatic, optimistic, agnostic, mystic, anarchic, and evolutionary world of Operation Mindfuck. I can think of no other individual who has single handedly contributed to and coalesced more currents of modern science, technology, philosophy and psychology into an endlessly readable coherence with such humor, insight, and optimism. The world needs, now more than ever, people like yourself who remind us that it's our trip, and that it is up to us to decide whether it will be a good or a bad one. Nothing I could write here could even begin to express how great an impact your work, thought, and existence have had for me. If our paths ever cross, allow me the honor of buying you an alcoholic beverage (or an entheogenic vegetable) of your choice, and if they do not, then perhaps I'll see you in the universe next door.

monsieur wilson, many many many dankas go out to you for all of your work, and all of your wisdom, and all of your humor in delivering that work and wisdom. you have done great things to me and for me, and i do so appreciate it. (although some of it SERIOUSLY pissed me off at the time)i also find myself laid up in bed for these past 3 months due to a broken knee, and since i had so much unexpected downtime, i too started a blog on blogger. if you are ever bored from laying in bed all day and looking for some entertainment, come on by.

Perhaps, dear Bob, you do write shite, but you've brainwashed us all into thinking its good ;) But then, surely the quality would lie in the brainwashing and it couldn't be shite afterall. Whatever way you look at it, dear teacher, you are a genius and a nutcase in the perfect combination (I was listening to the album you did with the Golden Horde the other day - crazy stuff).

You're like the third grandfather I've never met (on this plane), and a great teacher. Your work didn't just introduce me to the world of synchronistic weirdness -- it helped me overcome clinical depression w/o any medication but good old maria!

Today being the twenty third, I couldn't resist the urge to participate...

A wise man once said: "Internet is my favorite invention... I like it even more than the wheel"

This resonates with me as I read testimonial after heart felt testimonial trying to transmit gratitude thru a computer screen... individuals the world over who've had thier lives touched and changed - some of whom have been waiting for twenty odd years - finally able to touch back...

If you can listen to music thru your computer do thyself a favor and feel this shit:

www.myspace.com/thenoah23

Noah23 is the cosmic trickster that spread your memes in my direction, and I always thought you'd get a kick out of his music... and now with the invention of the internet it's as easy as ever!!

Well, it's December 23 of all days, so... and, you know... So: Merry X-mass to you, Robert Anton Wilson, and all your fans and anyone else really (we should hope for the best for all.) X-mass is the celebration of the unknown Beyond, whatever we really came from, wherever we go when we die; the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Have as happy a new year as you can (and crossing my fingers for the best from the new mgt in the house...)

Dear Bob-Here's wishing you the happiest birthday of Jesus, Dionysus, Orpheus, Bacchus, Osiris, Tammuz, and every other "Sun" of "God" who was "born" when the sun returns from its low-point following the Winter Solstice.Your books changed my life and my way of thinking and seeing reality ...sure, any book ever written is intended to do this to a degree, but none the more majestically, brilliantly, clearly, humorously, and intelligently as yours...thanks for sharing your positive reality tunnel with the rest of us...the wider the tunnel the better, and yours is more like a pleasant bridge than a dark, enclosed tunnel where the light only comes at the end...yours is filled with light throughout!love ya Bob,Tom Baas(gnostictom420@yahoo.com ... drop me a line if ya got time!)

Well . . . it's fanboyish and I should be a bit old for that but I'm not . . . so I want to also sound off as having been deeply affected by your work . . . I re-read Illuminatus and read Schodinger's Cat while recuperating from major surgery just out of high school in 1981 (still have a thing for redheads, traceable to that imprint) . . . actually in the morning (Christmas Day is a workday here in Taiwan), I will be giving a lecture to my students at the university on your writing and James Joyce . . . Brian http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com

A very festive Saturnalia to you and your kin, Mr. Wilson! My life has been richly enhanced by your writing; Cosmic Trigger, especially. Thank you for doing your part. We'll get there someday. Soon, I think.

May you be in better health and spirits with each passing day. Stay high, my wise brother!

In honor of you and Peter Lamborn Wilson and Colin Wilson (3 mind blowing writers with a common surname), I'd like to suggest that we add "We three Wilsons disoriented are" to the unoficial Discordian/Moorish Orthodox hymnal. Anyone care to help with the writing?

Dear Bob, My best wishes of love and light to you. You (and Shea) kickstarted me 25 years ago when I was 16, with your remarkable trilogy, and I've been keeping the lasagne flying ever since! Your work is important and will always be. Goddess Bless you, good Robert. Jon

Mr Wilson. Your writing has entertained and informed me in addition to expanding my consciousness over the last 6 years and I have collected many of your earlier works too. I have recommended your books to many friends, and given them recommendations and made sure they are in stock at the bookshop that I work at in Cardiff, Wales, UK. This is the least that I can do for someone who has given so much to so many (You even once kindly emailed me back some answers to an interview that I sent you for a magazine I DIYed)!! Your are thought of a lot and I and friends of mine that know your works are sending you good energy for improving health!!

Mr Wilson. Your writing has entertained and informed me in addition to expanding my consciousness over the last 6 years and I have collected many of your earlier works too. I have recommended your books to many friends, and given them recommendations and made sure they are in stock at the bookshop that I work at in Cardiff, Wales, UK. This is the least that I can do for someone who has given so much to so many (You even once kindly emailed me back some answers to an interview that I sent you for a magazine I DIYed)!! Your are thought of a lot and I and friends of mine that know your works are sending you good energy for improving health!!

I haven't meet an intelligent person yet that dosen't enjoy your writing.ThanKs for "sending " that book;) I was telling a friend all about how I was noticing this number everywhere. It freaked him out. Then his "crazy"grandmother gave him this book called "The Illuminatus Trilogy". Its been a strange,fun ride ever since.

thank you very much for your mind opening writings. I no more remember when I discovered your writings, but after infected with the RAW virus I tried to get more and more books from you. Sadly the publishers in Germany are far back behind your current publications. This year I got Cosmic Trigger II and still waiting when CT III will be out in native German. Did anyone ever do translations into Chinese language? I hope. Asia need your writings for its future :-)Also for Chaos Magicians work your writings are an endless source of inspiration.

May you get again in good health and have a much longer live so we can all profit from new writings.

Hail Eris!_RosE_ from Black Tower of Time(high member of the I.D.I.T.)

Well, duh. That's one thing what keeps an artist, a good (read: non-self-indulgent, one who has something to say rather than merely talking) artist, working -- because no matter what one does it's never quite good enough.

There's another reason for this: YOU already know the stuff you're writing about; by the time you put it on paper/disk/cave-walls, it's old news.

But it's new for those of us living outside your head. And, given the way you write and what you write about, it will continue to be new for everyone who reads it -- and even when we read it more than once.

Reading The New Inquisition completely changed my view of the universe, and I haven't stopped reading your books since. I recommend them to everyone, everywhere. And besides that, without your books I might never have delved into Finnegans Wake.

A friend of mine suggested it after I read Dan Brown's Illuminati novel Angel's and Demons. I can't wait to read your other Illuminatus Chronicles (are they also on audiobook - I couldn't find them anywhere)? Anyway, thanks for the brilliant book - my life will never be the same!

You know the planet gets named after you in several fictional works, right?

Anyways, just got into your writings this year...had read literally almost everything until that point and I have to say you have espoused some of the more original and probably accurate ideas that I've ever come across in my 25 years.

Just hope you keep blogging and letting you know that there is a young dude in Tel Aviv, Israel that totally gets what you've been saying (and, yes, that isn't the most cheery perspective to have in life).

Here's something to feel good about as it concerns the impact of your writing.

When I was 15, a smart and clever but socially awkward friend of mine fell under the unfortunate spell of ATLAS SHRUGGED. With persistence seldom seen outside of radical christians or Amway salesmen, he forced all his friends to read it, and wanted very badly for them to become Objectivists.

I was among those friends.

Now, I do not agree with the Catholic Church's old practice of banning certain books as anathema, but I do recognize that a mean-spirited book in the wrong hands and mind can be dangerous.

At the same time that my friend forced ATLAS SHRUGGED on me, I was also reading THE ILLUMINATUS TRILOGY for the first time.

I found that it seemed to act as an anti-venine. When I had dutifully completed SHRUGGED, as per my friend's request, ahd he asked me if I was ready to become an objectivist, I gave him a copy of ILLUMINATUS and said, "I don't need to be an objectivist. I'm already a Pope. Read this."

Sadly, it did not cure him of his acute case of Randianism, but it innoculated me against my exposure to the disease.

Speaking of disease, by the way, I wish you as much comfort as you can manage to find, in whatever way you manange to find it.

Bob,I am thinking often and hard about your health and welfare. I am looking forward to the day I can fix you a pleasant meal and then read with you on your deck.May the New Year bring you in with better health and more prosperity.One Love,Peggy Chase(Val's friend in NY)allthatisone@aol.com

Hiya Bob. You are truly the greatest Head of the Illuminati there has ever been. I am honored to post on your blog.

Here are some lyrics inspired by you. I've been meaning to send you songs, but this blogging stuff makes contact much easier. I have a few others like this one, but I'll put the lyrics in different posts, so as not to, as they say, "spam your blog." Thanks for everything. May the Pookah be kind and merciful.

Conspiracy

She wears a Rosy Cross, Pyramids in her eyeActing so elusive, I start to wonder whyShe speaks in sacred symbols saying things not what they seemits all too simple, something tells me theres a conspiracy

Fuzzy situation, Graffiti on the signknowin' inside information, like, she can read your mindit shows on the phone, hangs me up all the timeshe's got the Council on Foreign Relations on the other line

You're driving me crazy with the way that you love meooh i got a feelin theres a conspiracyall mixed up witch your sinister schemes

You are one of the most amazing and astute individuals of our time and you've shared so much of yourself over the years. One of my biggest regrets in life will be never having had the chance to hear you speak in person (and getting a chance to say hello to groups of 'spirited individuals' likely to be protesting outside :). Thank you for everything. Be well.

I see now that floppy pinkish nipples must wobble and undulate in choreographed fractal animation designs like an obscene amoeba Busby Berkeley sequence on a rotating circular stage in an Aztec movie theater before an undead audience of thrashing ecstatic interlocking M.C. Escher-esque zombie disco dancers who wear away their very flesh in throbbing friction dances, forever building to a climax that never comes. You must understand, an endless orgy of tantric intercourse, writhing in slow motion like the clash of galaxies in some more hip and well-lubed universe where the moist chrome ointment nozzles spray unguents of delectable wisdom and delight upon us all. Needless to say, you can plainly see through the end of a long tube a one-eyed vampire Bob Dylan who must enunciate his most intimate soliloquys in a peg-leg pirate waltz rhythm, "EVryBODy MUST! SUCK! BLOOD!", all the while chitinous insect gamelan clicks and deafening sinuous drones weaving in wordless languages simulated histories within histories, dreaming of dreams not yet dreamt, universes that flash expand, contract and flicker out again and again, time lapse flower birth and death.

You are in my thoughts Bob. Your work has had an important influence upon me in my development. I don't know what I could do for you, but if you ever need help from my corner of the universe please feel free to reach out.

Bob... I hope you are keeping your spirits up. Words cannot express the impact your writngs have made on my mind. I hope you have plenty of muffins to eat a la maybe logic style the movie *wink* and im sure you do. oh and speaking of 23, as im sure someone is somewhere. You might find it humorous to know that dr. pepper is now boasting the 23 ingredients that make dr. pepper unique. I had a hell of a night/day on the evening of dec. 23rd and I just couldnt wait to give my girlfriend a star necklace I had already purchased for her on the traditional day. I told her we should always celebrate the 23rd. While she has not read any of your works personally... I have explained to her that Prometheus Rising at least is the "required text" for this relationship. I love you Bob. I've always said, Don't break the mold, SHATTER IT! and that you have done over and over again and i thank you for it.

An interesting thing happened the other day. My long time friend of 13 years started reading your cosmic trigger one. Of all the places one could start, he's picked a very interesting one. It's rather interesting hearing one go off about how suddenly it's everywhere. Makes you get a new perspective of yourself. He became very amused when he found out that I have over the years read a far share of your books. He was startled he'd never noticed. Ultimately I just wanted say thanks and so long for all the fish. The memories have been amazing.. see you on the flip side...

Hi Bob,Hope all is well with you. You helped me to realize that we live in a young world. The free Masons were allowed to create a country and their effort created the USA. Our country was their effort to rule or rather deligate freedom w/o a religious influence. There is so much more than we will ever understand, but to be at peace with my limitations is your gift to me.I wrote a poem that I will share with you now:

Have an Epiphany

I stand before a tree, and a....Cloudy man twenty feet tall with a long beard,His manifestation illuminated by the moonlight,He has his arms crossed,He is looking at me with a guilty smirk,He is tapping his foot,To the beat of a quick faucet drip,I said to him...."It is time for you to leave,We all fight about how you want us to be,"With that he smiled,Took off like a rocket,And when he broke through the atmosphere,A trail of falling stars followed the spirit,Then rained down upon the Earth,And we celebrated that we were free to be.-DFJ

I can't begin to tell you how much you have touched my life. It has been a joy reading your books and listening to your ideas. Cosmic Trigger started me on a path that has enriched my life and those of my family and friends.

I am sending you all the positive energy I can dish out. You are loved! Blessing on you, and blessing on everyone who reads this.

Picking up on an earlier comment I have to say that the Internet is my most favourite invention too. Be it not for the net your wisdom would be just a dusty dream I never had and I'd still be living in the intelligence asphyxiation of Theosophical certitude.

For all that you have done for the minds of myself and others know that we will do all we can for you so both you and your work can continue to provide illumination across the globe and beyond to those who need it most.

Thank you, Pope Bob, for your great and entertaining books. You presented great ideas and exercises in a way I could understand and this has helpled me to become a happier person. I know you claim not to remember whether you were brought up in brooklyn or long island, but the area you mention, Gerritsen Beach, which still has lots of irish folks, is about a ten minute walk away from where I live in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn. I like it that two of my favorite writers - you and Walt Whitman, come from brooklyn. Thanks also for helping me understand Crowley, since I was brought up catholic I was disturbed yet fascinated by the man, but it wasn't until I read your stuff that I felt i had a clear perspective on his contribution. Thanks to the Beatles, Monty Python, Nichiren Buddhism, Mr. Crowley and You, Mr. Wilson, for helping me let go of the christian reality tunnel. I'm a musician who works in a bank to pay the bills. I work in branch 23 of citibank new york, and my teller number is 23- both no choice of my own. I still don't know what to make of that, I mean, I sort of understand how selective attention works, (you think about the number 23 a lot and you see more of it everywhere), but it's pretty weird noticing how far that can go in my case. We met briefly in the 90's when you did a lecture for the General Semantics folks at the Harvard Club New York, my friend and I paid for the expensive dinner and got to sit with all the stuffed shirts while most of the freaks and hippies were in the side room. Your lecture was not really taking off, and my friend kept getting more drunk on wine refills, then you said something about feminazi's and he LOUDLY and drunkenly blurted out "NO SHIT"... all the stuffed shirts froze, then you giggled and started going off about Roberto Calvi and piles of fucking cocaine. A night to remember? Anyway I hope you're at least enjoying your own amazing mind since you're not getting pleasant meals. The Menu is not the meal!!! peace, brother

I just wanted to say thank you, you helped me a lot. I was losing it for a while there until I read these words "Sometimes you have to go a little bit crazy to stay sane." Everything else you wrote reinforced this and the rest was gravy. I am indebted to you and I hope that, should you retire, I and the other folk you influenced (or created, in a sense) can continue on your good work. I am worried that if you stop producing literature there will be a vacuum. Your works will always stand as classics, but who out there is continuing the tradition? Anyway, thank you very much and Goddess bless, may all your meals be pleasant. Thank goodness for you.

It's great to see your still alive Bob. I feel sad thinking that you will probably not see the life-extension future you always predicted. I loved hearing u say that we might live 200, 500 years, maybe forever. It would have been fun having an immortal RAW.

This Blog was a great Idea and I hope you will find the time to read all these comments, I sure havent. :)

You said the business of making people think was a dangerous one, but it seems to me its also a very rewarding one, even if u didnt really know it :p

I hope you will stay with us as long as u can, now with bush&co dumbing down the population we need more men like you not less.

Pity, I always wanted to know what u think about Bill Hicks and Noam Chomsky, my other inspirations but now ill maybe never know.

Here's a tidbit I just heard on the telly! " no matter where you happen to be on New Year's Eve, Sirius the brightest star we can see will slowly climb up the southeastern sky hour after hour and at midnight will reach its highest point almost on the meridian. Think of it, the brightest star visible from our planet reaches its highest point above the horizon at midnight every New Year's Eve." http://www.jackstargazer.com/scripts0SG0652.html

i sit here in nuernberg germany on the first of january 2007 and i like to send you lifeforce and realy deep love for you.i work as a feng shui consultant and my chinese master prof dr. jes t.y. lim is a very taoist man.he believe in karma and more lifetimes and formes as the most do.we talked last about the dna and the carma of bloodlines and more.he becames a friend in the last 10jears and without you i never would met him.because i read your books in the 80´s and this made realy my mind open for different realitys...thanks for all bob...i send you love where ever you are right now...your good mind is in my dna and deep in my heart.best wishes and new force for a better year 2007.with all my love and psychic greetings from nuernberg.

First, YOU are loved! Your writing has done more than entertain, educate, and awaken parts of their being...at least it has for me. My son shared your writings with me years ago and they have given us many topics for discussion. Thank you for all you have given me. YOU are loved by many!!!

Bob, you are my hero. I read Cosmic Triggers I-III, Prometheus Rising, and Tim Leary's High Priest is about 3 weeks! I have a thirst and your words help it but also help me realize I can't stop learning; there's always more to learn. Needless to say, you are THE MAN.

Illuminatus! helped me through one of the most humorless, novelty free periods of my life -- it was the brain food I needed. Few authors have contributed to my positivity, knowledge, and sense of humor more than you. Like any good illuminating experience, insights have trickled in even years later.Remember that you are loved, that you have and undoubtably will continue to bring joy and insight to countless others.

Just wondering what your thoughts are on this upcoming movie called "23"? I think your ideas and writings have had more impact than you know...I often think of the quote that supposedly Brian Eno made about the Velvet Underground - that for every original pressing of their first album bought, a band was started...I think it applies to your stuff in some ways - I think it's filtering out into the "mainstream" culture in a similar manner. For sombunall person who read you early in their lives, a writer, screenwriter, etc., was made...

I don't think anyone is THAT Great!What a bunch of pompous, fawning sycophantic drivel. Lets put the old monkey on a pedestal and bow down before him! I don't think so.I'm sure he's a decent guy but so what...big deal. Jaysus!

Say what you will about us gushing fans, RAW himself is rather humble and in terms you would appreciate: Click into "The Robert Anton Wilson Pages" and see the Flash of Wilson-Monkey-Buddha over a fractal pattern. (Don't worry too much about the schmaltzy music first.) Wilson knows he is an ape like the rest of us and doesn't let that keep his imagination down, whatever that means.

Bob, thanks for all the awesomeness you sent our way. I read The Illuminatus! Trilogy about a year ago, and ever since I keep on realising how much your wonderful books have influenced the way I think. Nothing has ever sprarkled my imagination like your work.Along with men like Carl Jung, Umberto Eco and Aldous Huxley, you are one of my modern intellectual heroes.

your ideas stay within my mind and my metaphorical heart and they are reflected in my perceptions of reality. For this, I thank you, I love you. Follow your bliss man, it is you, don't be the hardware, it is an illusion, the mind, your thoughts are your reality.Thank You So Much

...very glad I could catch you before either of us go. Always wanted to make a point of contact with you at least once in the 'here' and 'now', to thank you for pointing to the way. Thought I was the virtualy only one who could see it till I read the Illuminatus. Still remember crying with joy at the realization I wasn't. That was twenty years ago now, seems like yesterday, or even tommorow...

I had the good fortune to read Cosmic Trigger when I was still at university. Without taking it as dogma, I'd have to say it's probably the healthiest and most useful influence I've ever come under. Thankyou.

i read the illuminatus! trilogy back in - what - 2000? - after watching the the movie "23". i think you made a cameo in that movie, too. and even though i thought i "got" the book better than karl koch i think it helped change my thinking without me fully realizing it. i had some rough years in the aftermath of reading illuminatus!, but everytime i finished one of your books it left me with a strangely comfortable feeling and curiosity for this world and a playful attitude i thought i had long since abandoned. and even though i love your scientific books and your nonlinear novels - the book that had the most profound impact on me was "masks of the illuminati" - i read it during a time in my life when i was basically at a complete standstill . holed in in a dark room in my head with thoughts of suicide occuring more often than not and no exit sign anywhere in sight. when i finished the book, my head was literally buzzing with joy and insight and when i woke up the next morning it was as if someone had opened the curtains to a whole new stage. i literally saw the world in more vivid colors than i had been for several years and walked around with a dumb grin on my face the whole day. this buzzing sensation subsided a couple days later but i haven't had a depressed day in my life since. and that was approx 3 years ago. strange, but true.

I hope you feel better soon Bob. Although we have never met I hope you won't mind me calling you by a shortened name. The Cosmic Trigger helped bring my wife and I even closer together than we already were. We learned lessons and shared your pain through that book and remains a touchstone with us.

I'd like to add my voice to the chorus of people who have been entertained, educated, and inspired immeasurably by your work. thank you for reminding me who makes the grass green, and thank you for everything Mr. Wilson!

One year when my parents came to visit from New Zealand they admitted that they had always considered me a little odd. It came as something of a shock to me because, although I was well aware that I am odd, one rather expects ones parents to think otherwise. Perhaps.

For very many years I didn't realise that I was odd and instead thought that either the world was very odd or I didn't have it very well figured out. Finally I discovered your writing - beginning with Illuminatus - and discovered that everything is odd and none of those other bastards have it all figured out either. I finally began to feel comfortable (rather than simply naively optimistic) in this crazy world.

As with many others who have written here, I really can't imagine how I could have survived, particularly how my optimism could have survived, had I not discovered your writing.

Truth to tell, I didn't just discover your books; they were given to me. It is not only unto you that I am grateful but also to my dear friend who introduced me to your writing. You have made friends make friends. You are a touchstone that allows awakening to be passed from hand to hand, from heart to heart.

The Illuminatus Trilogy arrived at an opportune time and sparked synchronicity in the most remarkable manner. I will be forever grateful to you.

Dear Bob,At the Santa Cruz premiere of Maybe Logic, our third meeting, I introduced myself to you as someone who owed his diagnosis of schizophreniform disorder (and 23 day stay in a mental hospital) to reading your fiction, and owed my recovery to reading your non-fiction. You promised me an interview for ANARCHY magazine on the topics of Anarchy, Identity, and Sanity. I am hereby releasing you from that obligation. Rest in peace. In lieu of the interview, I've written several columns on Anarchy, Identity, and Madness. The last in the series, a modest tribute to you has been deemed unpublishable by the main editor. So, I'll offer it here to you and your fans. Bless you,Primate J

Anarchy, Identity, and Madnessby Ben Blue The sufis have a saying that an ass loaded down with books is still an ass.Aragorn! tells me he would rather be a librarian than a library.I am probably more of a library than a librarian, a well-read asscompulsively reading in multiple fields beyond my level of comprehension. This strikes me as a recipe for incoherence and confusion. One influenceon my thoughts, Philip K. Dick, has been described as the poor man'sThomas Pynchon. Perhaps I am the homeless man's Hakim Bey. Reading Tolstoy's Writings on Civil Disobedience and Non-Violencehelped put me in a double-bind that Gregory Bateson theorized as theorigin of schizophrenia. Just recently, I've finished reading War andPeace and learned that Tolstoy's conception of freedom posits that theconsciousness of total freedom can only occur in the absence of space,time, and causality. This is the world I was finding described inpopularizations of Quantum Mechanics by Gary Zukav: The Dancing Wu LiMasters and Fritjof Capra: The Tao of Physics. After the events of June,July, August 1991 I'd fill in the details with more by the likes of JohnGribbin: In Search of Schroedinger's Cat, Nick Herbert: Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics, Fred Alan Wolf: Taking the Quantum Leap, AmitGoswami: The Self Aware Universe and Michael Talbot: The HolographicUniverse. Any remaining Marxists who want to assert that materialconditions determine consciousness might want to peruse these titlesbecause orthodox materialism isn't what it used to be. In some cases,listed above, it even looks like monistic idealism! Reading two thirds of Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson'sIlluminatus Trilogy soon after reading Victor Marchetti's The CIA and theCult of Intelligence and Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky's The WashingtonConnection and Third World Fascism caused everything to converge into apoint of dissolution. 'I' had read too much. 'I'knew too much. One conversation 'I' recall from Havenwyck Hospital as 'I'gradually emerged from a two week blackout:[Name Deleted]: Ozzy Osbourne knows all. 'I': Monty Python knows all.[Name Deleted]: Monty Python knows nothing!'I': Yes! On returning home from the hospital I was afraid to read. Readinganything might destabilize a sense of self. But it was OK for Mom toread to me. And so, at the age of twenty-one, I seemed to be fiveagain, sick in bed, listening to my mother read me a story. Inaddition to acting as a chemical lobotomy on right hemisphere brainfunction, haloperidol can have a paralytic effect on muscle tissuewhich feels remarkably like all of one's internal organs are beingcrushed. And so, I listened as my mother read me a story fromScience News about surgeons operating on a fetus in utero to alter agenetic condition in which all of its internal organs were beingcrushed. When it seemed safe to read again I finished the Illuminatus Trilogyand then moved on to devour the Robert Anton Wilson corpus. Four of hisnon-fiction works stand out as especially helpful in recovering fromwhatever it was: The New Inquisition, Prometheus Rising, QuantumPsychology and Coincidance: A Head Test. A Wilson essay on FinnegansWake introduced me to the work of Stanislav Grof. Even more so thanWilson's work, reading Grof's Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death, andTranscendence in Psychotherapy helped me immensely. What might have alsohelped, had it existed at the time, is Navigating the Space BetweenBrilliance and Madness, self-published by bipolar friends of anarchistfriends involved in The Icarus Project. As a (former?) madman I can'trecommend their work highly enough as an anarchist approach to dealingwith a diagnosis of mental illness. Visit their website athttp://theicarusproject.net Toward what destination does this book burdened ass wander? Whatconception of anarchist revolution do I offer or advocate? I think thatBlueists, should such a faction ever arise, might begin by reading MaxStirner's The Ego and Its Own and Nisargadatta Maharaj's I Am That. Compare, contrast, contemplate until something clicks. For a detailedexplanation of the click from a neuroscience perspective, read James H.Austin's Zen and The Brain. Last, to add a veneer of contemporaryacademic philosophy, imbued with anarchist insight, and more clarity andcoherence than I might offer, read Richard Sylvan's TranscendetalMetaphysics: From Radical to Deep Pluralism. Compare Sylvan's Wholle ofdeep plurallism to Stirner's Creative Nothing and Maharaj's I Am That. But if that profusion of words seems daunting, take heart, and rememberthat Hui-Neng, Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism was an illiterate peasant. A simpler route is to read an as yet unpublished essay by LawrenceJarach's friend Jim Wilson, Recognizing Anarchy, and there you will findthe beginning of the only revolution I will ever want or need.

I was traveling once near Santa Cruz. I saw a turnoff for the A R Wilson quarry. This was shortly after Maybe Logic came out. I'd fallen into the trap of idolizing you, and despite finding you listed, never gave you a call. My friend Zon, who was on his way from the Autonomous Mutant festival to be your caretaker (I know not whether he flaked or not), said you hosted an open house on a weekly basis. For this, I regret my addiction to Texas.I saw very few complete sentences in these comments. I figured I'd add several.

I jsut had a friend reccommend your works, and it's the nature of this particular friendship, the respect and love I have for this person, that makes me want to run right out and read it all. I am sad to find you not feeling your best ( a ridiculous understatment eh?) Anyway - just wanted to say there is another person out here wishing you a fantasic time here and journey there...wherever that is!

Your writings pulse with a life-and it is "of a kind"...the writings are a great gift...they help one learn to see and learn how to see..."he is a deep one"...may the force be with you eternally...(sorry couldn't help the obi-wan reference)